Step 1: Step 1 - The Base

First, you'll need a base layer. I used knee-high socks, and highly recommend, but you can also use the tall calf-length socks. Ankle socks will NOT work.

Step 1 -- Put your foot in a sock.

Step 2: Step 2 - The Barrier

Next, you'll need a couple recycled grocery sacks, or some garbage bags. Don't use Ziploc bags, they don't bunch right and end up being uncomfortable and not really protective.

Step 2 -- Put that sock in a bag.

Step 3: Step 3 - The Outer Layer

Next, you'll need another pair of knee-high (or calf-length) socks. Put those on over the grocery sack.

Step 3 -- Put that bag in a sock.

Step 4: Step 4 - The Pull-down

The last step to weather-proofing a foot is to cover it with a pant! The type of pant is not terribly important, but jeans work well to provide a little bit of buffer between when the snow hits your pants and when you can feel it through the sock/sack barrier.

Step 5: Step 5 - Gettin Jiggy Wit' It

The first foot was lonely. Be a doll and go make another one to keep it company, will ya?

Step 6: Shoes!

After a comment in which someone didn't realize that shoes are needed to complete the project, I am now demanding that you add shoes on top of your socks and bags!

This same technique works well WITH waterproof boots to keep your feet warm when you're working outside all day in extremely cold weather (below-zero to 20 degrees F above). It keeps the perspiration from your feet from getting the outer layer of insulation (the outer sock) wet and losing its insulative properties. The inner sock should be thin and the outer one thick. Half of a black plastic garbage bag, with the seam on top of your foot and the rest folded around your ankle, is more resistant to poke through than a shopping bag. But it helps to pull the bag and the outer sock down on the toe, to create some slack, and to wiggle your foot around inside the boot, to make sure that the bag isn't stretched too tight against your toes.

Your feet come out kinda nasty at the end of the day, but it sure beats frostbite.

Good idea- May work in some areas where temps are higher- Here in Alaska 'Cotton kills" - Cotton is not a wicking material then wraped in plastic the sweat is trapped - and then freezes to sock and skin- Dress socks and gortex - and a good winter boot -

Remember to do the buddy check when in the cold for long periods. Kids have smaller feet so they freeze faster- Keep the eye on th lil ones'

folks the best thing for both thermal and moisture protection is to have the plastic bag vapor barrier first against your bare foot then pull a sock over that. citation; robert wood, the 2 oz. backpacker, and my personal testimony.

If your base sock layer is wool, these work just fine since the wool stays warm when wet. I don't think the author is suggesting this as a permanent solution as a substitute for boots or one for a long trek :-) I think it's a great idea in a pinch & have seen it used since I was a child without anyone having their feet freeze off :-)

If you're going to be out for a long time, so that your feet might sweat, you can take this a step further. You'll need two pairs of thin socks and one pair of medium or thick ones, and 4 bags. I usually use 1 gallon food storage bags. Put on a light pair of socks, then a pair of bags, then the heavier sock, then a pair of bags, then the remaining light pair of socks. The light socks protect the bags from getting holes in them. The bags keep the thicker socks dry, whether the moisture is sweat or from the snow. Dry socks are much warmer than damp socks. Your feet may end up a little damp, but they'll be warm. Only worth it if you're going to be out for an hour or something.

very enjoyable, your low-tech instructable. And actually quite sophisticated. We used to just use ye olde bread bag over the sock, as kids, because the snow would just eat through boots of all kinds. The sliding-around-inside feel was rather like inner toboganning. secrets from the land of snow. :-)

Is the intent to wear these without a shoe or boot? That will surely wear out a pair of socks pretty quick (maybe not in "pure" soft powdery snow), but if you encounter ice, or twigs (under the snow), or whatever. OTOH, your normal shoes might not fit on top of the socks and bags, and leather shoes would be very subject to damage from getting wet.

Sneakers you can let get wet and then dry later.

It just seems like the instructable is unfinished. If the intent is to use the socks without some sort of outer shell, I think it should say so. (Or say not, and why.)

ummm,,, i think that is why the pic of the snow covered sneakers and pant legs is the big pic on this page. Good point about the shoes if they are not big enough or tied toooo tightly they will cut off circulation and damage your feet easier. That is true of boots also, it is just harder to pull them that tightly.

OMG!! i had completely blocked out the bread bags!! now i need to call my therapist again. LOL!!! I still remember my mom not buying Roman meal because she said they used the hay as well as the grain. We never got to to -30 but i do remeber that if one of the socks was a quiter then it would be around the arch of your foot in about 9 steps. I wonder if the new "green Bags" that they are puching for veggies would work better or worse. And what happens if you turn gortex inside out?

great jpb retroing a generations known secret, it is amazing how these tricks get lost oone the way. My grandma and mother would have me and my sister(to her horror until it was proven that her friends would not see the plastic. ) when we could not afford snow boots. (yes i also know the recipe for tuna casserole) Works great for a day but be carefull not to wear them too long and get trench foot. Awsome ible, thanks for sharing.

What isn't being explained is you are creating a vapor barrier, which has an insulating power. Your body heat is trapped inside the plastic bag and first sock. The next picture should show you putting on your regular pair of shoes.

I've done this with plastic wrap. You can pull it tight around your leg and up to your knee.

Down on the farm, as far back as oh, '89 or so, we used to use the plastic bags in our rubber boots, when our rubber boots would wear themselves to leaking. It wasn't so much to keep out the cold, (rubber boots being much colder than a witch's teat anyhow, no matter how many felt insoles or wool socks you had) as it was to keep out the cow$hit. Generally, the plastic bag would get a hole in it as well, so it was kind of an exercise in futility.

In the movie "Runaway Train" Jon Voight and Eric Roberts prepared to escape the Alaska prison out in the frozen wilderness by first wrapping their bodies with big rolls of cellophane before putting on their clothes. Same principle. They died not from the cold but from defects of character and a self-imposed destiny of doom. Your instructable is more inspiring.